Opinion: Why an ‘honorable’ discharge is a part of a dishonorable system

Last month, the Pentagon automatically granted honorable discharges to 800 of the estimated 13,000 veterans who had been pushed out of the military during the 1994-2011 “don’t ask, don’t tell” era with less than fully honorable discharges. Even 13,000 is likely an undercount. In some cases, if a commander suspected homosexuality but lacked proof, the servicemembers got administratively or punitively discharged preemptively. Neither does the Pentagon’s estimate count veterans separated because of their sexual orientation before 1994, when automatic discharge was the formal policy.

This Veterans Day, we should reflect on the population of veterans who were discharged in a process that is still suffused with subjective notions of honor and shame. This moment of reckoning with LGBTQ+ veterans is an opportunity for the Pentagon to rethink its archaic military discharge system.

Since World War I, the military has tied veterans’ benefits to the characterization of their discharge. “Honorable,” “general under honorable conditions,” “other than honorable” and “dishonorable” are the most common. Individual military commanders are granted discretion on these distinctions, placing the determination of honor or shame in their hands.

Since World War II, 2.36 million veterans have been issued a less-than-fully honorable discharge. Each service varies in how they dispense these discharges, too. Although only about 10% of marines and airmen get other than honorable discharges, about 20% of Army soldiers do.

Even a seemingly benign downgrade — from “honorable” to “general discharge under honorable conditions” — makes a difference. Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare is automatically available to those with honorable and general discharge characterizations. Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, however, are reserved only for those with a fully honorable discharge. Without it, a soldier can’t get full tuition and fees at a public university as well as a housing and books allowance — a sum that can easily reach $100,000.

This is an imperfect practice at best, and one that has never been applied uniformly. It makes the nation’s largest employer — the U.S. military — unique, tying eligibility for benefits to a perception of “honor” in one’s work performance. During and after World War II, for instance, around 50,000 servicemembers — who were mostly people of color, women and LGBTQ+ — were given “blue ticket discharges” that made them ineligible for benefits. More recently, some commanders have used their discretion to push out military sexual trauma victims and those suffering post-traumatic stress with less than honorable discharges.

I’ve spoken with dozens of veterans who received other-than-honorable discharges and their families and seen the damage caused firsthand: stymied career prospects, limited access to healthcare. Not having an “honorable” service record carries a stigma in the veterans community as well. Many organizations’ websites state that eligibility requires fully honorable service characterization, leaving veterans to question whether they are “real” veterans.

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Outside of the small subset of automatic “don’t ask, don’t tell” upgrades, everyone else has been left to apply for an upgrade on their own. Some waver because reengaging with the Defense Department seems like pouring salt in the wound. Others are put off by the process, which can take months to years of submitting paperwork, attending hearings and waiting for final determination. Upgrade requests for “don’t ask, don’t tell”-era veterans have increased across the board, but the Navy and Marine Corps still deny 23% and 18%, respectively, of these upgrade requests.

Discharge review boards have also been approving upgrades for service members pushed out less than honorably who suffered conditions such as post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. Still, success rates are low for other veterans seeking an upgrade: The Naval Discharge Review Board granted relief to only 33% of claims with a mental health adjudication between April and June 2024.

The Pentagon should explore a new system with fewer types of discharge and objective metrics. At the least, eligibility for VA benefits should reward time of service, using a transparent, sliding scale of benefits that increases based on the length of one’s career.

A conversation about the Pentagon’s outdated and often unfair discharge system started even before the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” yet little has been done to explore alternatives. Commanders’ discretion is too outsized in the current system, leaving those who serve their country needlessly vulnerable to bias. We should not let veterans fall through the cracks based on subjective notions of honor and shame.

Ryan Haberman is an Army veteran and senior policy analyst at Rand, where he primarily focuses on national security strategy and government workforce issues.